Fact Sheet 46
download here
THE GARDENERS DIARY
WEEK 46
14th August 2005
THE DIARY THE FLOWER GARDEN: Turn your attention to Heather. Heather beds may need some vital attention this week. Hand weed around your prize plants feeding with an ericaceous feed to continue to encourage healthy growth. Dead head varieties as they finish, shearing them into roundish hummocks. If you want to use some of your heather material for a lucky charm or buttonhole then pick the flowers from a double-flowering variety of Calluna vulgaris in the morning. Pack it into some plastic wrapping and place into the freezer. This can be thawed when needed and will appear as fresh as the day that you picked it.
THE GREENHOUSE: Plug up the gaps in the greenhouse!
If you missed out on sowing some pansies and other winter/spring bedding then don't panic. A lot of garden centres and nurseries will start to stock some plugs for you to pot on ready for you to plant out later on early next month. Plugs are a great way to grow your bedding requirements taking out the trickiest part of propagation
germination. Once potted, keep them in the coolest part of the greenhouse and make sure that they are well shaded on hot and sunny days. Keep well watered and until they have fully filled their containers pick off any flowers so that all the goodness can go into the plant. Slowly harden them off to outdoor conditions once large enough.
FRUIT & VEG: Fishing for fruit.
Top fruit like Apples and Pears can easily blow off and thus bruise the fruit and spoil the crop. An easy way around this is to place a net of nylon mesh to catch them as they fall. This needs to be connected to the trunk of the tree with strategically placed stakes around the tree. The net needs to be dipped in the middle so that the fallen fruit can be collected. This will hopefully give you more fruit into your bowl and less into the cider barrel. LAWN CARE: Start preparing for new areas of lawn. Start raking and levelling new areas of lawn which are labelled to be sown later this month. Remove all weed growth and large stones. Any potholes which occur should be filled with some top soil. Keep raking the area so that you have a fine tilth. Keep doing this once/twice a week until later in the month. PEST PROBLEM OF THE WEEK: Sawfly damage to Robinia's. Robinia's or False Acacia may have large notches trimmed out of their leaves. This is the attack of sawfly larvae. The larvae resemble small caterpillars which are green in colour and may well have munched through the growth slowly defoliating the tree. Once attack has been noticed and identified then spray with a Liquid pesticide to hopefully rid yourself of this pest. After first application leave for 7-14 days before repeating.
Listen to The Gardener's Diary with Luke Ashmead on BBC Three Counties Radio every Sunday afternoon at 2.00pm Contact The Gardener's Diary Here BBC Three Counties Radio 94.7, 98, 103.8, 95.5 and 104.5FM | 
